ICology Blog

In the latest Chuck Chats! interview, I talked with Brenton Miller, a communication professional with IC experience at Financial Engines and LegalZoom. Sometimes with Chuck Chats, I've met the person before. But even though Brenton and I were both at PRSA Connect last month, we haven't met. But this made for a more lively conversation. From his background I saw that he'd had previous experience at Disney, which of course, we chatted about that. But he also shared he wanted to be a video game designer, which led us to an even more interesting discussion.

Here are some of my favorite takeaways from my chat with Brenton...

On what communicators could learn from video games...

It’s funny you mention that because that’s what I look for in the games I play — the story and how it draws me into the world. I think many Internal Communicators could learn from classic games like the old Final Fantasy or Earthbound that focus heavily on the story to bring those characters to life. As in, taking a look at how they build the world around those characters and their relationships in game.

On what Brenton learned about communications working at Disney...

Like any company, Disney is only as great as you are passionate about the product you create. I met folks at Disney who definitely hated working there, and I met folks who liked it at first but it diminished over time. Then there were people like me who liked it for four years straight and still think about going back. It’s because Disney does a great job of providing fun perks, and instilling their culture and values into their cast members. I used to lead orientation for a time at The Disneyland Resort and it was my job to get people to remember one thing: “We Create Happiness.”

Disney was great about being able to cross-utilize and try out different jobs. Wearing many different hats is something I really carried on from Disney and it’s given me the courage to try out a lot of different internal communications techniques. It was the reason I had no fear when I walked into my internal communications role at LegalZoom and got asked to redesign the intranet. I said “ok” and set about teaching myself HTML, Javascript, SharePoint, etc. to do it.

On linking employee experience to customer experience...

It’s challenging when you don’t get to see the result of your work for the customers. That’s what made Disney so easy too. All you had to do was go play in the park and see the families, or experience it for yourself. It makes it a lot easier for our employees to work hard and put more effort in if they know they’re making a tangible difference. It’s hard to do in internal communications to get that point across sometimes.